The UK鈥檚 inconsistent and illogical abortion laws are in the spotlight again, as a battle plays out across multiple fronts. In Northern Ireland, Belfast鈥檚 Court of Appeal has the country can keep its almost complete ban on abortions. But over in Westminster, to avoid , the UK government has announced that women from Northern Ireland can have abortions on the NHS providing they travel to mainland Britain. At the moment a private abortion would cost several hundred pounds.
In the rest of the UK, women can have an NHS abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, or later if there are fetal abnormalities or if the woman鈥檚 life is in danger. Pro-choice advocates on the mainland may shake their heads over the more conservative stance of Northern Ireland and a similar law in the Republic of Ireland, but there is no room for complacency. In fact, UK law is more reflective of the judgmental sexual mores of the 1960s than the sensible provision of a modern-day medical procedure.
When abortion was legalised in 1967 it entailed minor surgery and people assumed it should always happen under a doctor鈥檚 watchful eye. While surgical abortions still happen, now , which usually means taking two doses of medicine, one day apart, triggering the embryo to be expelled as in a miscarriage.
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There鈥檚 no need to go to a clinic. In places where abortion is illegal such as Ireland, many women buy the pills over the internet and take them on their own at home. It involves painful cramping and nausea, but it鈥檚 not dangerous. We could easily let women carry out their own legal abortions in the comfort of their home, if they wished 鈥� as is being trialled in parts of the US.
Society has changed a lot since 1967. Then abortion was seen as a shameful fallout of extramarital sex, and was legalised mainly to avoid the greater evil of dangerous 鈥渂ack-street abortions鈥�. The new law permitted abortion if continuing with the pregnancy risked the woman鈥檚 physical or mental health; to emphasise the decision鈥檚 gravity two doctors had to approve the procedure.
Abortion on demand
Although stigma remains, society has become more liberal in many ways, and women can usually have an abortion on demand. This complies with the law, because it can be argued that forcing a woman to have a baby she doesn鈥檛 want could . About 98 per cent of abortions are done on these grounds.
Yet women in the UK can still technically be prosecuted and sent to prison for having an abortion without two doctors鈥� approval. Women should be able to talk it over with someone if they wish, but for those who are sure of their decision, there鈥檚 no reason they shouldn鈥檛 get the pills through just one visit to their GP, or even buy them at a pharmacy.
Some say we should not use the law to regulate how abortions are carried out anyway. Earlier this week doctors at the British Medical Association鈥檚 annual conference .
They were not arguing for an extension on the time limit for abortions, but that it should be governed like any other medical procedure, with any doctors breaking the rules to be sanctioned by their regulatory body, not charged as criminals.
For a long time both anti-abortion and pro-choice campaigners, both unhappy with the current law for different reasons, have settled for an uneasy truce. Now a variety of forces are conspiring to put abortions back on the UK political agenda.
